Halloween Fat Book

I recently participated in one of the most wonderful swaps. I belong to a Yahoo group called, "Altered stART". They had a Halloween Fat Book swap where each participant had to make 15 Halloween fat book pages, send them all to the swap hostess in California, who then took took the pages and made them into a wonderful book for each of us. Another member made tombstone name tags for each of us and the books were bound with fun, colorful ribbons and sent back to us. I was amazed at the creativity and had to share. Aren't these pages amazing?

This was such a fun project! It was a great conversation piece!

Today is my brother's 59th birthday. What a treat for my mother!! I recently spent a nice long weekend with my brother at his home in Vermont. I have some incredible pictures to share, as I was there at the peak for Fall Foliage. It was amazing. Happy Birthday Dan!

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween!!

Torso Tags

I belong to a great group on Yahoo, "Art For The Creative Mind". There are such fun challenges that I just cannot resist. I did over-commit myself recently and had to get all hands on deck to help me meet deadlines, but it was still fun. We have a sassy woman as our leader of this group and she continually comes up with many great swaps for us to participate in. The torso tag was to be a Halloween theme and we needed to create two tags for our partner. I was really pleased with my tags and my partner was too. Yay!

Here is the front of my favorite torso tag.

The back . . .

My second favorite torso tag front . . .

And the back . . .

They were fun to make.

In another Yahoo group I belong to, "Altered stART", I participated in two Halloween swaps. I must share the finished products with you. Fantastic. Superb. Amazing. That will be another post, probably right before Halloween. The talented group of people in this world inspire me so!

How Sweet It Is

In my neighborhood, there are many Gardenia bushes. I love the smell of Gardenias and I love walking past these bushes and smelling their sweet aroma. On Friday I noticed yellow "caution" tape surrounding one of the bushes. Upon closer inspection, this is what I found.

What's that? You can't really make out what I'm trying to show you. Here, let me give you a closer look . . .

Or, how about this . . .


When I was a little girl, my next door neighbor used to raise bees. He would look like a martian in his beekeeping garb. I remember getting my share of bee stings as a little girl. All the neighborhood kids did. We learned to stay away when the bees were being tended to. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like this, though. Definitely a unique photo opportunity that I had to share. Amazing.

One To Go

Rachel came home with school pictures. We are pleased with the way they turned out. She selected the purple background. I like the way it looks.

Rachel is a junior in high school this year. I can't believe her school years are almost over. She can't wait. It's been such fun raising my children. It has truly been the most rewarding experience of my life. I must admit, though, I'm a little sad it's almost over. I've had such fun . . . most of the time. But what really threw me for a loop was the pleasure Rachel got out of closing the circle of her school pictures. Only one more picture to go.

She stood back with pride to look at her photo frame next to Logan's.

Such a sense of accomplishment she had to see how far she's come.

Yes, I guess I feel that way too.

Flowers for Boss' Day

I was pleasantly surprised last Friday with this pretty flower arrangement.

Karen, my Human Resources Coordinator, gave me these flowers for Boss' Day. I'm not real into these newly fabricated holidays, but I was so very touched to receive these flowers. They still look beautiful, almost a week later. Thanks Karen!!

The Twists and Turns of Life

A little over two years ago, I posted about my sister moving right next door to me. It has been an amazing time having my baby sister so close. We shared many dinners together with our children. She talked me into joining the gym. We enjoyed many moments at the glorious beach talking as when we were children sharing our hopes and dreams. But life happens and things change and what we once thought could be so special, so righteous, so endless, actually does come to a close.

My dear baby sister got married. She was swept off her feet by a man from Tennessee. I resented him at first, taking my sister away from me. But the love in her eyes, the peace in her soul, the contentment in her heart is all I could ever want for her. They are moving back to Tennessee before the sun goes down again.

When I think of the overwhelming excitement I felt as I watched the truck pull down the street with all of my sisters worldly possessions in June of 2008, I could barely contain myself. I knew we had so much fun ahead of us, so much time to bond and rekindle the closeness we always had. How many sisters get the opportunity to live right next door to each other, to share as adults all of life's moments, to sit and while away the hours as we watch and listen to our children growing up together. These are life's precious moments. These are the times we will always remember. These are the memories that we etch deep into our soul, never to be abandoned.

While I know that my sisters move back to Tennessee is the best move for her, and while I will forever cherish the times we were blessed with, and while time and distance will never sever our bond, my tears fall and my heart breaks.